This intelligent ten-year-old pointed out the problem of car over-use in Cobham but she will no doubt agree that the problem exists everywhere.

I’ve lived in Molesey long enough to remember the Hurst Park estate when it was a racecourse.

Now, on a Sunday morning, it is not unusual to see two or three cars crammed into driveways on that estate.

When I cycle to the riverside recycling point, I often see many fit people arriving by car with their contributions.

They don’t seem to realise the harm they do to the environment, their car journeys far outweighing any benefit from a few bottles, cans or paper being recycled.

I remember actually seeing a man drive from Garrick Gardens to The Precinct, buy a newspaper and drive back again — a distance of a few hundred metres.

What leadership can we expect to end this profligate use of the car?

Not a lot.

The Government’s manifesto promised us “radical and hard” measures to get us out of our cars.

What did they deliver? More roads to be built and road pricing.

One act is a disaster for the environment, the other bad news for pensioners and the lower paid.

No one has the courage to take on the powerful road lobby.

Meanwhile, the hundreds of deaths and thousands of people maimed in road accidents will continue to rise, more green land will be covered in ashphalt, and more overstretched police resources will be wasted on car offences.

And don’t forget the many hundreds of thousands of innocent people who will have perished in oil wars so that we can continue the school and newspaper run. What a bleak future.